Since my veggie garden was established 2 months ago I’ve learned a lot about what to do and not to do when you grow your organic veggies. Especially, when you try to make as less an impact as possible on the planet and your wallet at the same time. Sometimes, its more complicated to do it that way, but its definitely worth it.So check out below what I’ve learned, perhaps it will make your gardening experience easier 🙂
See below, lessons learned in the last 2 months.
Tomatoes:
- Of course I didn’t follow the instruction and planted my tomatoes and capsicum too close to each other and now they are too cramped- I will definitely follow instructions next time, and give them enough space.
- I didn’t prepare a sturdy trellis for tomatoes and now I keep having to add a stick here and there to hold them up which looks really bad – next time I will have a skeleton for them
- This year I let tomato plants grow as they wish, pruning only the very bottom leaves and they are now over a meter high with heaps of green tomatoes and flowers on them. Yesterday, while on a trip we visited Miranda Farm (first fully Off Grid Organic farm in NZ) and I noticed that their tomatoes had one main thick stalk in the middle with branches coming out of it no longer than 20 cm, this might be another way of doing it that I might try. Their plants were full of fruit.
Salad:
- Planted too much salad, there are more than 8 different heads of salad, leaves ready to be picked and we can’t keep up with eating it. You can only eat it fresh, I can’t really make any preserves with salad leaves can I?- Definitely less salad for next year.
- I tried to grow some of my salad in a hanging basket that I got on sale but unfortunately it didn’t work, it literally didn’t grow at all and some bugs where eating bit by bit at night- I should have checked if that is a proper environment for it but again I will know for next year
- Twice I mistook my rocket salad for a weed and pulled it, so little boards with plant names are a must for next year
- Salad planted in raised beds with peppers is thriving, whereas salad planted randomly around the garden in only a compost+soil mix is really struggling and bugs are eating it- definitely best grown in a raised bed.
Cucumber:
- I bought 4 cucumber plants from the reduced price area in a local Garden Centre, already infected with some type of mold that I thought I can get rid of once I plant them. Unfortunately, I was not able to heal my cucumber plants and after 3 lovely fruits they now really struggle to survive and I don’t really know how to help them – Remember, when you buy plants from the sale area, make sure that they are not infected.
- It probably didn’t help that at first I tried to grow them in a plastic bin bag in a corner of my lawn, because I ran out of space in my Veggie Patch. Than, when I realized it was a mistake I moved them again and planted with soil+compost mix beside a wooden fence- planning your garden space is essential and will help you to avoid unnecessary replanting and/or plants not thriving due to unfavorable environment for them
Peppers/Capsicum:
- Bought these plants at reduced price, planted in my raised bed and never looked back since :)- they are thriving
Seeds:
- Planting seeds didn’t really work well for me, most were planted straight in the garden into a compost+soil mix and watered twice a day but that was not a right way to go. Seeds of Marigold flower did not give us even one flower; Seeds of Amaranthus, out of 30 seeds got only 2 little ones growing and still not sure if they will survive; Dill Seeds- again looks like nothing will grow out of it- For the next time I will do my research on how to do it properly and will follow step by step. Any tips, as for now growing from seeds seems to overwhelm me?
Raised Beds- creating and caring:
- Even though my raised beds are not really raised that much; and it took some time for me to get all the ‘ingredients’ for all the layers inside; and I improvised a bit when setting them up- they are an absolute win!
- They keep the moisture in really well; No weed is growing in there which is a great relief; All the plants are thriving!
- Tried to use rain water collected from roof runoff as often as possible to water all my plants. That not only saves some money on our water bill but most importantly it saves plants from chlorine and fluoride that is in the tap water.
- Fed them with Organic Sea Weed conditioner and Warm Juice bought on TradeMe;
- Again this year I used Epsom salt mixed with water to water Capsicum and Tomatoes to support fruit growth- please check out the link as it is a really amazing way to support your plants growth
At the start when I decided to create raised beds and create layers inside I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work I had to do to finish it…having a little baby, for most of the time meant that there was only one person at any given time (me or my husband) to do the work. But, now i see that it was well worth it! I’m really hooked and the joy and pride from seeing my plants growing so well is a daily pleasure:) I’m hooked, and I’m already planning to plant more 🙂
unliving 